X Marks the spot
by madisonavenue
Summary: Just another normal day at X, another chase, another threat?


**Was originally a one-shot. Got into it too much so decided to create shorter chapters instead of one unbearably long one.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything.**

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Act one: Of Cheers and fears. 

"Stay on his tail; I'll head them off at the main entrance." Fillmore said down his talkie as he swerved a record breaking sized chessboard courtesy of the chess club and dodged the football team exiting the boy's locker room.

"I'm on it." Ingrid replied. She flipped over a pile of the school paper, the 'Examiner', waiting for its twice daily delivery around campus, and grabbed a scooter resting against the locker extending her safety patrol badge to the angry owner. 'God I love being able to do that.' She secretly thought. It was one among many of the perks that came with becoming a member of the safety patrol.

It had been a normal Monday morning, well at least as normal as you could get it at X Middle School. Safety patrol officers Cornelius Fillmore, ex delinquent, long term patrol officer and Ingrid Third, new to the school, the student league tables and the safety patrol, bringing her useful gifts of photographic memory and quick thinking, as well as highstandard work in the field to the team, were just returning from a false alarm in the cafeteria when they saw them.

A grey hooded figure, with a cat mask covering the distinguishable features of their face, was bent low in front of the safety patrol HQ, slipping something under the door with gloved hands. As they stretched up, they saw the two officers heading their way and took off at full speed in the opposite direction. The chase was on.

She looked ahead to the suspect who was at full speed about 20 meters in front. Luckily, the scooter was working to her advantage and she was gaining on them. Suddenly they were gone, disappeared from the now deserted hallway. None the less, she carried on, determined to do her new job to the best of her ability. So determined, that she didn't notice the runner concealed behind a group of lockers. She didn't notice until they were on top of her.

The scooter went flying off and hit the lockers, its green paint unscratched, unharmed. A scooter can take a hit from a heavy metal locker but unfortunately, a human can't, and Third was no exception.

He was nearing the side entrance when he heard the crash, he noted it, but kept on running. It would take less time for him to get out and conceal himself behind a tree close by, than it would if he hesitated, and he hadn't come all this way for nothing, He was just taking a shortcut. He jumped the last few steps and dived through the double doors, rolling behind a tree, just in time to see their suspect come flying out of the entrance himself. 'Come on Ingrid!' He thought as they ran closer and closer to his hideout.

When she didn't appear, he grabbed one of the nearest branches and yanked it back as far as he could, ready to let go when the hooded figure passed. 'Three…Two…One…' He thought to himself as he let go and it sprang back into its original position.

The next moment seemed to happen in slow motion. He sidestepped the tree to see two things. Ingrid, leaning on one of the double doors massaging her head and the shadowed figure doing a back hand spring over the fast moving branch, then speeding down the road on a stolen board.

She winced as she tried to sit up after the collision, her head was pounding and she felt a trickle of blood slide down her face from a wound concealed behind her thick black hair. She slowly turned to the locker and saw the sharp edge, her vision blurred for a second before she came to her senses. She let out a slight moan as she stumbled to her feet, wiping her face with the back of her hand, and deleting any trace of the fall. A needle slipped out of her arm and fell into and open locker.

"Hey Third, you okay? Ah heard a crash."

"I'm fine, just banged my head, she pushed me off a scooter." She replied, feeling a headache coming on.

"Well, we better get back to HQ, Vallejo's not gonna be happy with this, neither is Folsom, we can't afford another false move or she's gonna have our HQ for a yoga studio."

"Yeah." She mumbled. "At least we have a lead."

"We have a lead?"

"Yeah, didn't you see her jump? Those kind of reflexes and that amount of flexibility are only ever found in gymnasts and others of the sort."

"Wait, how do we know it's a girl? And, to be honest that doesn't really narrow our search. This schools big."

"Firstly, the build of out suspect wasn't in the right range to be male, and yes, but at least it's a start. We can check out the team's later, see if they have any info."

"Teams, your losing me here girl."

"Artistic, rhythmic, aerobic and I believe we even have a trampoline squad. There are also the dance classes oh and not to mention the cheerleaders."

"Dawg, you know more than me about this school and I'm supposed to be the old-timer. Anything else you want to share with me before we have to share it with Vallejo?"

"No." She muttered. "Nothing."

"You lost him!"

"Her." Ingrid came out with.

"This is killing me here, not to mention my hot cocoa intake. Folsom isn't gonna like this, neither is my mom's collection of pistachio nuts, were already clean out of em. Get out of here, and make sure you get to the bottom of this before I have a nervous breakdown. Kinda taking the words out of Folsom's mouth here, but the future of the safety patrol is once again in your hands, not to mention somebody's life, it's up to you to find out who's it is and protect them. Now scram, and don't come back until this case is officially closed. Tehamas working on the message, go see her"

"He really needs to sort out his priorities." Ingrid commented as he slammed his office door and watched a framed photo fall off the wall and smash into pieces. She went over to her chair and slumped down, in deep thought and concealed pain, her headache still hadn't worn off, in fact it was getting worse. She wanted to scream.

"Hey Tehama, any news on that note?" Fillmore enquired as he made his way towards her desk.

"You mean threat." She held up the message for him to read. 'There's only room for one of us, find out which one it is before it's too late. The game has begun.'

"Dawg. Was it addressed to anyone?"

"No. It's difficult, no prints, no nothing. "Wait a sec." She picked up a magnifying glass and held it close to the interior of the envelope. She pulled out a miniature bead with a tiny hole in the centre.

"You know where it came from?"

"No, but I do know that it came from something our mystery girl was wearing. Very detailed work, hand stitched, not something a usual criminal would wear, carelessness on her behalf."

"What about our letter?" Fillmore asked.

"Not quite sure, the letters are all cut out, I know someone who might though."

"Hey Third." Fillmore announced as he approached her desk. "You okay?" He asked her as he noticed he head in her hand and her messed up hair.

"What? O yeah, just a little headache, it'll go."

"Good, we need some help with this message."

She waited until he had turned his back and slowly got up, using the desk for support, feeling as if her knees couldn't hold up the weight. As by a miracle, she stood up and walked purposefully towards the two figures leaning over the piece of evidence.

"You recognise anything?" Tehama asked as she picked it up closely examining it.

"Paper used is standard plain paper, nothing unusual, not handwritten but a mixture of fonts and sizes. The letters seem to be made up of different fonts. That's strange, there all printed out, don't they usually use old magazines and newspapers?"

"Doesn't really help, are you sure there isn't anything else?" Tehama enquired.

"Nothing. Unless you count the spectacular display of gymnastics."

"Were going to check out the teams who could possibly have a link." Ingrid added quickly as she saw her expression.

"I'll go then, Ingrid, stay here until that headache of your dies down."

"Yes mom." She replied sarcastically.

Just as Fillmore had left, a small red haired girl stormed in and started shouting out for all to hear. Anza quickly took over, noticing the disgruntled looks from fellow officers, they didn't need this.

"I demand to know why the safety patrol has rights over other people's property! This week alone, I have had my scooter taken twice."

"Whoa calm down, urm…" Anza said.

"It's Cadence, Cadence Albrite."

"Okay then Miss Albrite, what seems to be the problem?" He continued.

"The problem? The problem! The problem, officer, is that members of your patrol seem to think it's legal to take other peoples property and use it to catch criminals."

"Well, technically it is. You will always get it back in one piece, usually." He added under his breath remembering the incidents with Fillmore. "And just think, your vehicle has taken part in bringing in a wanted criminal!"

"But it hasn't, I saw your officers walking back empty handed."

"Did you get it back?"

"Yes, but that's not the point..."

"Was it damaged in any way? We can pay for any repairs." This comment received a dirty look from Vallejo as he walked past, crunching down on a nut and spitting the shell into his open hand.

There was a moments silence and she finally muttered 'no' and stalked away towards the door. Anza shook his head and turned to get on with his work.

"In fact, yeah, something did go missing." She explained, earning herself an exasperated look from Anza behind her back. He turned to face her in a slow manner as she carried on in an exaggerated way."My house key was attached to the handle, when I went to retrieve it, it was gone. How am I supposed to get into my house without a key!" He turned walking away, earning himself an enraged look from Albrite.

"Hey Tehama, you free for a bit? Need a bit of backup on the 'get back my key or die' situation over there. Can you go with Miss Cadence over to the entrance lockers to find her key, I would normally go, but I have the S.A.T.T.Y 9 to study for. I've been on my toes all morning and haven't had chance."

"Sure, anything to get me out of decoding this message. Hey Third, you up to a puzzle?"

"Sure." She replied. "Anything to get my mind of this headache."

"Thanks."

Tehama went over to the door where Cadence was waiting, glanced over her shoulder to Anza, smiled as his facial expression changed from relaxed to tense whenhe opened his workbook, then to the far end of the room where Ingrid was sitting, head resting on her hands in deep concentration, her eyes glued to the message. She sighed to herself and closed the door behind her, it was going to be a long day.

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**Act one up, should update the next part sooner or later. In the meantime, REVIEW! And include any mistakes I have made, I have tried to proof read but I can always miss something. **

**xmadisonx**


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